Shadowhunters: The Gray Stele
by CornyDoesWriting
Summary: The Shadowhunters of Scotland are few but determined. The Dundee Institute is returning to work and faces the grave threats of Demons and Rogue Downworlders. When Parabatai Callun and Lyall, joined by their team, encounter a mundane with the sight they're pulled into a lethal conflict between the Insitute, Rogue Shadowhunters and their abhorrently bound Demons.
1. Chapter 1 - The Shadow World of Scotland

The crowds, as always, were out in full that night.

Few of them knew exactly what was going on and those that did were less than reputable. We were in a pub which had a large enough basement to house a decent show venue and the darkened lighting added the perfect atmosphere for the function that was away to be provided. The set-up quick enough, the PA system rigged, lightning changed and band banners hung. I'd never been much for excessive decoration, but when it came to gigs I liked to go a little overboard on the props. We had two black banners which hung on the flanks of the stage, both positioned over smoke machines so our bold font exclaiming _Haunter's Dhow_ was surrounded in mystery. The drum kit was positioned inside the Arabian vessel of our name sake, a small boat with shredded lateen sails. Old barrels had been hauled in to dress the stage a little more and let us guitarists kneel up on them when we needed to balance our instruments for the tricky bits. More importantly however, the back of the stage was sectioned off in rows of weapon racks, which held swords and maces far too decorative to be real, or so the audience were led to believe, and two statues of Angels which had been left untouched. Though the smoke gave them a haunting enough visage, and helped hide the Runes carved into their bases.

Truth was, everything was carved in Runes. What would you expect of a Shadowhunter band? The wards ensure none of the mundanes could see what was really going on. Not that they knew what they were looking for anyway.

The support bands had already been on and the lack of lighting had hidden our stage set-up. These kinds of gigs always attracted Demons. They couldn't resist the sweat that tempted them and the living energies that drugged them. They hungered for these places and we, as Shadowhunters, were always happy to give them their opportunities. They were easy enough to identify.

"You ready, Lyall?" Callun patted my shoulder as he passed. He was a tall lad and built like a barndoor. His broad shoulders vastly differentiated from mine and his black leather jacket only made him bigger. As parabatai, we were stark opposites in appearance at the very least.

Didn't help I was ginger and he was a brunette.

"Yeah, I'll just grab a seraph blade."

"So, you're not ready."

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the small tube-like instrument that sat on top a box across from me. I slid it into the inside pocket of my jacket and got ready to head out on stage. I wasn't the only one still getting sorted. Blair was tuning his bass and Ailith hunting her drumsticks. In fact, Callun and I were the only ones ready, as per usual. I watched as Ailith tucked her drumsticks into the back pocket of her jeans, next to another seraph blade. Blair had found his bass.

I led us all onto the stage.

The show, as always, was fun for us. Huge fun. I got to scream at people all night and shared a few guitar solos with Callun. We did everything together, after all.

Well, everything that was acceptable.

The Demons were easy to identify. While the mundies jumped about, kicking and bawling at each other, the Demons hung as close to the mosh pits as they could without being in them. However, there were always a few extra lingering around and they tended to be the smarter ones. They were taking a risk coming here.

Though, we had our own tricks for the hunt.

"I want to see your horns, Dundee!"

The audience complied wholeheartedly and I got to enjoy the sight of nearly a hundred fists bouncing back and forth through atop the crowds. It was satisfying to be in my position, sure, but I still had a job to do. The next song was our big trick, you see. There are some frequencies Demons just can't stand and, well. Let's just say we'd see who enjoyed the next few songs the least.

"Now, if we're all metalheads here then you know how to move like metalheads," I looked out across the crowd, panting like a mundane. Eyes lingered on me and some didn't seem entirely natural. Though it was a challenge to tell in this lighting. "Are you ready to dance?!"

There was much charging and jumping, elbows and knees crashing into each other as the crowd leapt at the opportunity to crash about. Then, there was thrashing. There was a clear difference and it separated the mundies from the dumdies. There were seven of them here and it was clear some of them had figured out our little act. One was squinting at our band name and I wondered if he'd figured out it'd been an anagram of _Shadow Hunter_ all along. Another was in the front row and I had great satisfaction screaming "For the hunter, descending to hell is always easy." Not quite our little quote, but close enough to get the message across.

The mundies were none the wiser.

Of course, the dumdies were never able to leave. As soon as the last song was over the Shadowhunters manning the doors had herded them back inside and locked the doors. We turned on the floodlights and illuminated our prey as the four of us hopped down from the stage, brandishing our seraph blades.

Even better, they were still drugged up on the ecstasy of the night. Killing them was more than simple.


	2. Chapter 2 - A Small Excursion

"You got the remote?" Callun sat next to me on the sofa, crunching into a biscuit while staring blankly at the catch-up TV I'd thrown on to break the silence. I passed the remote across and continued with my breakfast, shovelling toast-soldiers into my mouth.

"You're a pig."

"At least I eat an actual breakfast." I retorted swiftly whilst flicking a bit of egg across at the brown-haired idiot I'd partnered up with all those years ago. He merely smirked, showing his healthily stained teeth, and continued with his biscuits.

"Do you think Blair will bring ice-cream back?"

I shot him a glance and proceeded to ignore him, only because we both knew Blair would be returning with ice-cream. We had a small kitchenette and it was permanently stocked with various flavours of Ben and Jerrys. None of us ever complained.

We had a nice area, come to think of it. It was homely. Our institute, the Dundee institute, was fairly like most others across the world except ours had recently undergone refurbishment. Our single-room dorms had been replaced with small apartment-like set ups, where there was space for an entire team of Shadowhunters. We'd gotten to decorate ourselves, and we'd fitted it out with humble leather sofas, a flatscreen TV and whitewash walls. Of course, it had the normal extras, kitchenette included along with bedrooms, laundry room and a team-access armoury. We even had a music studio.

Ailith appeared a few minutes later, clambering down the two wooden steps that went up to the corridor out to the bedrooms. She raised one hand to her face as she rubbed sleep from her eyes and the other hand ran through her dishevelled blonde hair. She'd quickly thrown on her baggy _Rise Against_ t-shirt, which I'd bought her a few years ago on her birthday.

"Looks like Ailith has, Risen Again." Callun shot a quick glance toward the confused looking girl, who had to look down at her shirt to realise the pun.

"That was lame." She yawned, stepping into the kitchenette. She slid open the black fridge-freezer door and peered around. "Is Blair bringing ice cream?"

"The question is," I began, stretching out over the back of the sofa, looking across at her. "Which flavours is he bringing?"

"All of them, knowing Blair Dog."

"Please don't put 'dog' after anything, Callun."

"You got it," He took his fist and thumped his chest twice. "Dog."

Both Ailith and I groaned at that addition to the conversation and as Ailith busied herself with breakfast, I took my empty plate across to wash it. Then I washed the small mountain of other dishes people had abandoned by the sink. It was once again, a regular chore that I didn't mind doing.

Once finished I turned and walked through to my bedroom. The corridor was dimly lit and I enjoyed my leisurely stroll to the end of the hall, before I pushed open my door. Everything was as I left it, an organised mess of books, music and weapons. I'd dumped my jacket and boots on the warm double bed so I tiptoed across the floor to avoid stepping on my music or anything sharp, Lego included, and grabbed my shoes from the covers. Ailith had bought them for me a few days ago, we had a habit of buying each other clothes, and she knew my style. Tough black leather combat boots with a chunky heel so that I didn't appear quite so small. They were a perfect fit too and padded so that they were comfortable to charge around in, and more importantly kick dummies in. However, there were finer details. They were lace up and each silver peg was marked with a small etching. They were old celtic runes, not all that powerful, but a nice touch all the same. From what I knew, they were in response to the meaning of my name. Lyall means 'Shield Maiden', for context. I shrugged on my jacket, grabbed a seraph blade and headed back through the dorm. Ailith and Blair were stuffing the freezer with ice cream as I left.

The rest of the institute was just as modern. There were three floors in total including the living quarters, training halls and the utility floor. The top floor held the living quarters which were relatively minimalistic. The walls were cut from oak and a dark blue carpet ran throughout the quarters, giving it an almost stately feeling. The only thing missing was antique portraits which had pretty much been replaced with marble busts of different Angels. I would tell you their names, but I didn't really pay much attention to the décor up here.

On the second floor, however, I was an expert. The training halls had spaces for physical, mental and rune training. I spent most of my time around here and knew the new layout like the back of my hand. From the stairwell, you stepped into the expansive combat arena where Shadowhunters trained almost constantly. White tiles ran along the floor and witch light shone from each panel, a faint rune carved into each section of reinforced glass to further ward the building. If you cut through here you'd find yourself in a large gymnastics gym, which we'd set up to mimic an average street in Dundee. It was made so we could train in being mobile around here and now most Shadowhunters were basically experts in Parkour. Honestly, it was a useful skill.

There was also a library on this floor, which held most of the theory based training Shadowhunters would need. Next to that was space to practice different runes safely.

I planned to only stay in the Arena though. Our Weapons Master, Daniel Roseblood, had an elevator platform at the northern most point of the hall and I'd found myself training with him a lot more recently. He made himself available to all Shadowhunters but gave priority to those he found particularly adept. Suffice to say, I got a little bit of priority.

"Ah, miss Ravensow." Daniel Roseblood was a man of athletic build, which I found refreshing. Too long had the butch tall Captain America type bloke ruled the worlds of combat. Daniel was in remarkable shape but he represented balance, in my eye. His shoulders weren't too broad and his legs wouldn't crush a horse.

"Hello, Daniel." We had a casual relationship. "Can we do a few spars?"

"But of course! Is your Parabatai joining later?" He beamed, running a hand through his blonde dreadlocks and afterwards his beard.

"You kidding? Callun's way to up his own arse."

"I've noticed a distinct lack of his presence, indeed. His Mother seems impressed with him, still."

"Well, hopefully she'll be impressed with us both."

Here's the thing about fighting as a Shadowhunter. It's intense. Daniel and I train with actual weaponry, not blunt blades or sparring equipment. I fight as if I'm trying to kill Daniel because in an actual fight, I will be trying to kill something. I'd never succeed, but I'll damn well try.

The seraph blade was light in my hands despite its size. Probably because I felt it throughout my entire being, it wasn't just a weapon. It was more of an extension. We held a connection.

As for my actual movement, well. I don't know how to describe it. It's as if when a Shadowhunter and seraph blade come together the Shadowhunter's entire being becomes a living weapon. I could move in ways I never normally would, whirling back and forth so fast that to the outside I would become nothing but a blur. Daniel was faster, his blade constantly in the way of mine before I'd even known what I was doing myself. His offense was just as brutal. I had to constantly back-pedal, resorting entirely to acrobatics to dodge, weave and parry through his flurries. I could barely keep up with him and I felt myself rapidly slipping behind with every manoeuvre.

In the final stanza, I was on the offense. Teeth ground together, I thrust and slashed my way toward Daniel, who calmly parried every strike as if my attacks were air. I took the remaining momentum from every one of my strikes so that I could spin with the arc and bare down on him some more. My assault only stopped when Daniel caught an overhead on his blade and twisted our weapons around, flicking mine to the side and breaking my defence. His leg swept mine from under me and I collapsed onto my back, landing hard enough to force the air from my lungs. His seraph blade rested against my panting chest.

"Forty three minutes and twelve seconds." Daniel stowed his seraph blade and pulled me back to my feet. "Well done, Lyall."

"How…" I paused to take in my breath, wiping sweat from my forehead. "How are you not tired?"

"Stamina rune. The closer a rune to the heart, the stronger." Daniel pulled away his black vest, showing the swirls of the stamina rune on his breast. No wonder he wasn't breaking a sweat at all, his stamina must be insane.

"Right… Fair enough. Feedback?"

"When you concentrate, your defence is pretty solid. Your problem comes from your offense. Think about it this way, if I were to strike down on you while you ran me through, what would happen to my weapon?" He motioned his overhead strike, which he slowly brought down on my shoulder.

"It'd keep going," I gently flicked the blade off my shoulder, "So I need to consider my defence while attacking as well?"

"Right. Always block before you strike. Or at least get out the way." Daniel then replaced his blade with his hand, gently squeezing my shoulder. "Other than that, you're a riot."

"But, Callun's more of a riot."

"You always were better with a stele. Now go find Callun, I'm sure he needs you."

Callun was, as always, in the map room. He had a seraph blade tucked into his pocket and as far as I could tell, he was tracking a Demon in a nearby town. The screen flashed with a shimmering circle of runes which surrounded a bulging red pip. I watched Callun for a moment because I liked to gauge his mood before talking to him about what he's tracking. Sometimes Callun watches certain Demons for months, in case they show any strange habits. From the way his arms gripped at his waist through his leather jacket, and how he glared unfaltering at the screen I could tell this Demon was such.

"Where is he now?" I asked as I approached him, standing next to him as I looked at the screen.

"It goes around Forfar, but always visits the school while it's open," He rapidly tapped the screen and the map zoomed in on the Academy, positioned at the top of the town. "I guess its maths isn't too great?"

"It's following a pupil."

"Definitely. They're having a school dance this evening, I expect it's going to attend. Do you think it'll go suit or kilt?"

"Kilt. It'll want to look local."

"You mean ridiculous." He smirked and finally let himself relax a little more. I left my hand on his shoulder, having to reach up a little to do so.

"So… We ought to figure out who he's tailing, and why, right?"

"Right. Can you get Blair and Ailith?"

"We're literally right here." Blair laughed, stepping out around the side of the monitor. He looked as if he'd been training as well, wearing a loose grey vest and showing his pale arms glistening with sweat. Freshly drawn runes burned at his skin, and his jet-black hair had clearly just been towelled, as it was strewn all around his head. Ailith was next to him. She'd woken up a little more by now, and her piercing blue eyes darted across to Callun and I. She pushed her golden mane back over her shoulder and swiftly tucked it up into a tail. She was wearing the black denim jacket I'd gotten her a few weeks ago. It was partially a joke, she Demons always shredded her sleeves after a while. Needless to say, this jacket had no sleeves to shred.

"Well, I guess that's sorted." Callun grinned to the pair before glancing down to me. "I guess we have a school to scout?"

Checking out the school went on without a hitch. It was an old building and the layout was obvious. Better yet, the hall the dance would be held in was already decorated and we were able to identify the entrances and exits without even going inside. The building was essentially a large square, with an inner square taken out to make space for an artificial pond. There was a smaller building which had been added later, but this didn't seem to be of much importance.

Setting up for the night was just as easy.

Two teachers manned the front door and while the four of us could have easily snuck in there, we decided to split up. If there was a demon here he could easily be watching the obvious entrance for his prey and we wouldn't want to be so easily spotted. Besides, there could also be downworlders.

We sat in the near empty car-park, able to watch the entrance as the mundanes arrived for their little dance. Crouched in a circle behind a school bus, we discussed the plan for the night. We had no team-leader as such, but Callun was the most seasoned of us all. We all listened to what he had to say, so he tended to lead these kinds of things.

"Right, we have two main objectives. We hunt the Demon, but we also need to find out who he's following. We'll split into two teams to tackle each goal. Now, I know the Demon's habits. I want to be hunting him, since I know what I'm looking for." Callun looked among us all to check his proposition was fair on us. We all nodded.

"Am I with you then, Callun?" I asked my parabatai, but he shook his head. With two fingers, he pointed toward Blair, who was still wearing his vest but with a leather jacket pulled over, and wriggled his eyebrow.

"No, actually. Blair's with me. If the Demon catches wind I need somebody fast to take him down. Ellie, I want you with Ailith to secure the exits. When we find out who the mundane is, we'll get a picture of him and update you. When he leaves, tail him. Ellie can tackle any locked doors and set up rune traps if we need."

"Oh," I looked toward Ailith and flashed a quick grin. "Girl squad."

"Let us do Beyoncé proud." Ailith ran a hand through her hair before our traditional team-building fist bump.

"Cool." Callun started to get to his feet and poked his head around the side of the bus to look at the School once again. Then he turned back to us all. "Remember, we're not the New Yorkers here. We keep each other updated and no theatrics. I want no Clary Fray's and Jace Wayland's, got it?"

We laughed our compliances and headed for our positions. Ailith had found a side door on our look around earlier and we made our way across the cracked stone path toward one side of the building. AIlith and I had partnered up many a time before. In fact, we all had. We were a team in every sense of the word and the two of us operated like clockwork. Ailith took point, a seraph blade in hand in case there were any surprise while I followed up behind with my stele. The door was locked, as we expected, so I made my way up to the old thing.

"I'll watch your back."

"Tell me if my hood is inside out, would you?" I took the stele between my thumb and index finger and deftly drew an opening rune into the door. It burned away quite happily and with a gentle click, I heard the lock flick back. I opened the door and let Ailith inside.

"You ought to be a tattoo artist."

"Have you seen my arms?"

I'd never been inside a mundane school before and the new experience was, well. Odd to say the least. Our institute probably held as many people as this did for longer periods of time, yet it never seemed to get untidy. This place was nothing short of a mess. The carpets were trodden with mud and dirt, and even the cleaners couldn't keep up with the vast amount of varied litter that had been strewn around the place. Not that we had much time to observe, as we proceeded to charge through the old corridors. There were a few things I smiled at as we passed, but they were all just latin quotes that I knew none of the existing pupils would actually care about. The staff probably didn't either.

We took the long way around to the dance hall, otherwise entering from this side would have been completely pointless. Besides, with our Shadowhunter runes it took us mere seconds to find our way there as well as find space under a staircase to hide in. Ailith took a quick look around the surrounding area and found only a few drunk mundanes. Nothing of any interest at all.

I sat with my phone in one hand, and don't even bother guessing what model it was because it was from Idris, and waited for the screen to flash up from the text that was to come. It only took about five minutes for that to happen. I opened the text from Callun and downloaded the picture.

It was a mundane boy. He was dressed up in a dark grey suit, a waistcoat shrugged over a navy shirt. His sleeves were rolled up and he looked quizzically toward the camera. His brow was furrowed and his eyes squinting, as if he was looking at something that he wasn't sure was there.

Asides from that, he looked fairly mundane. Pardon the pun.

His hair wasn't short nor long, somewhere in the middle with a fringe that was spiked up at the front. His eyes looked brown in the photo, but it was dark in that hall and hard to tell.

Yet, his expression bothered me. It was like he could see the photo being taken.

I texted back _'Did he react to you? :3'_

Before I got a reply, there was a crashing noise from down the corridor. I was out before Ailith, seraph blade behind my back. I saw the mundane, a terrified look across his face as he darted down the corridor. He stared right at me, but he had bigger problems than a girl dressed in leather standing in the middle of a corridor.

The Demon was chasing after him, in the form of I assume another pupil. He wore a tartan kilt and his jagged-tentacle maw slavered as he charged after the boy.

"Ailith! He has the sight!" I knew that information would change how we tackled this. I made a split-second call and tucked my seraph blade back into my pocket. The sighted mundane was crashing through the doors just before me, the demon hot on his heels. Callun and Blair were behind it, Seraph blades burning as they gave chase.

"Ellie, run up the corridor and head into the bigger hall we saw. I'll get the boy!" Ailith drew her seraph dagger and gestured for the mundane to take her hand. He didn't decline.

I did as I was told. I turned around and made for the P.E hall, boots pounding against the varnished floor and then the far wall as I kicked into the hard right down the next corridor. Another unlocking rune saw the wooden door open and I emerged out onto the large padded blue floor. It was currently set up for basketball, and I picked up one of the glorified bouncy balls and let Ailith duck inside with the mundane. The Demon appeared behind them, and I threw the basketball as hard as I could. It smacked into the Demon hard enough to send its head snapping back, the unholy being hissing with fury at the move. But, it did what I wanted it too. It was stunned long enough for Callun to come in and slice up it's back, causing it to scream and collapse to the floor.

"Ellie, rune the doors! Nothing gets in here, got it?"

I kicked the door shut and worked on drawing in the runes that would lock the doors from anything in the Shadow World. Luckily for us, I was damned good with runes.

I heard the conversation that was going on behind me. Callun was working on calming down the mundane who sounded as though he thought he was hallucinating. Ailith and Blair were checking out the Demon on the floor, which was unsettling. They were meant to turn to ash.

"That there, is a Demon. You've seen them before?" I heard Callun ask as I walked by to rune the last few doors.

"The doctor gave me pills for when I saw them, they're in my bag, I need to go-…"

"Listen to me. You're not hallucinating. The normal world doesn't usually see our World because of different powers and magics. We need to get you somewhere safe."

"Ellie, come here." Ailith called out to me as I was marking the last door into the room. I finished up, hoping that rune would hold well enough. I jogged across to where Ailith and Blair knelt by the deceased Demon and crouched next to her. She pointed down to a thick red marking on the Demon's neck and I got distracted briefly by the smell of mango from her hair.

"What rune is that? Is it a Demon one?" She pulled down the Demon's white shirt to show the rest of the marking, a swirling black mess that I'd never seen before.

"Demons don't mark themselves, Ailith." I look up at Callun, who seemed to have the mundane onside after all. "Callun, we've got another one."

"Another what?" The mundane asked, staring down at the Demon who had come after him.

"Demons normally burn away when you kill them with a seraph blade." Callun began to explain, trying to put it simply for the mundane. "Recently a lot of our Demon kills haven't been burning away. Somebody has been trying to make them more powerful, by marking them with runes similar to ours."

"And runes are those tattoos?"

"Right."

"Callun, we can't stay here." I lifted my stele once again to draw the fire rune on the Demon's body. Instantly it burst into flames and started to burn away. I heard Callun and the mundane talk some more behind me as Ailith, Blair and I waited for Callun to move us on. I heard him call the Mundane by name. Ryan.

"Right, back to the institute. Ailith and Blair cover our backs, Ellie mark Ryan."

"But he hasn't-…" I began to protest, but Callun was adamant.

"If there's more Demons he'll need them, Ellie."

"And if I draw them all at once he'll die anyway, do you remember -your- first Rune?" I snapped, shoving my stele into my coat. My hand reached for the seraph blade tucked into my pocket and I pulled it into my hand. I called its name, Malik, and the shimmering heavenly blade shot free.

"Fine." Callun led Ryan toward the far end of the hall, tucking a regular knife into his hand with the instructions _for self defence_ and turned back to look at me. "You're the expert."

I rolled my eyes but the comment made a smile creep to my face. It was nice to get compliments from time to time. I pushed open the door that led into the outside night, able to do so since the rune was of my making, and stepped outside.

There was instant carnage.

"There they are!" A gruff voice shouted and I was forced to react in surprise as a blinding seraph blade arced through the night and sought to crash atop of me. I gripped the side of the door and spun around it, narrowly avoiding the seraph blade which burned by my shoulder. My response was a light draw-cut across the opponent's mid-riff, which was effortlessly parried as I anticipated. It was the follow-up the mattered, and the solid slash across my enemy's chest saw him cut to the ground. I looked up and saw two more rogue shadowhunters already darting forward, seraph blades in hand. Another three were some way off.

Callun burst from inside, his shimmering weapon following behind him as he shot forward like a sniper-round. His blade cut into the shoulder of the first Rogue before following through to parry the attack coming for him with ease. He spun around the second Rogue and I saw the silvery blade burst from his chest in a shower of blood.

"What the fuck?!" Ryan yelled, looking around at the bodies. Ailith grabbed him round the waist and ushered him on, telling him not to look. Blair ran to my side and checked if I was injured.

"Just scraped my arm, I'm fine. Get Ryan to the car." I told him as I raced up to join Callun, who had his seraph blade raised at his side. Two more Rogues had appeared from somewhere, and it was now two against five.

I knew what Callun was thinking. We couldn't face these odds, not just by fighting. We needed a different plan.

But we were parabatai.

"Take my hand!" I grabbed hold of Callun and dropped Malik beside me so I could get to my stele. Callun knew what I was doing and I felt a refreshing surge of energy as I felt his concentration and focus run through my veins. With my stele I drew the rune line by line in the cracked tarmac, my hand rushing back and forth as I drew it large enough to do what I wanted. I needed a big effect here.

But they were getting close.

Callun would know to avert his eyes. He'd feel me telling him to in my heart. With the last flick, the rune was complete and a brilliant white flash shot up and around us like a flare. I buried my face into my partner's jacket to stop from blinding myself and I heard the Rogue's screams as their eyes would burn with blinding pain.

"You good Callun?" I yelled over the noise as I reached for Malik once again.

"I'm good, let's go!" He shouted, before we turned and sprinted for the streets.

We'd parked our 4-by-4 a little way down the road and the back doors had been left open so Callun and I could swiftly jump in. The Rogue Shadowhunters had been delayed but not stopped and they were slowly catching up, some still rubbing at their red-sore eyes.

"Head straight for the institute." Callun ordered as he yanked the passenger door shut. Ryan sat between us, white with shock. His hands gripped at his seatbelt like iron vices.

"Will somebody tell me what is going on?" His voice was tight and taut and I knew Callun's laid back explanation would set him off again.

"You've heard of werewolves and vampires, right?" I started, shooting Callun a look that warned him not to interrupt. "Well, to put it shortly, all the stories are true. We're the Nephilim, or Shadowhunters, and we basically make sure the stories don't become reality for most people. You're not most people, clearly."

"And who are they?" He pointed toward the Rogue Shadowhunters out the side window whom we were driving past. "They look like you."

"They're Rogue Shadowhunters. Usually we hunt Demons and try to keep peace among downworlders, but those guys don't like our style anymore." I tried to smile as politely as I could, and I was glad to see some colour come back to Ryan's face. "You'll get it all soon."

"Yeah, right. It's like a big fantasy game in real life."

"You a _WoW_ player?" Blair turned over his shoulder, a slim eyebrow perked up on his forehead.

"Um, yeah."

"Think of us as Rogues in style, Illidari in ability but Paladins in heart."

"Because those are not the most conflicting classes in the game. That makes you sound like Holy Warriors who burn powerful marks into their skin to fight demons and sneak about in black clothes."

"I mean, that's essentially what we are." Ailith giggled softly as she pulled out onto the motorway. She was the only one who deglamoured. A car full of nobody driving around would be… Confusing.

"Except we aren't demonic at all, unlike Illidari. We're just masochists." Blair shot a glance toward Ailith and shot daggers in return. "Isn't that right, Ailith?"

I heard Callun snort on the other end of the car and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop from laughing, an act that was so difficult my face turned red.

"Okay, so you hunt Demons. But why was that one after me? What have I done?" Ryan's voice sounded shaken and I caught him looking at the scars across my arms.

"Probably nothing. You should call your parents, tell them you won't be home for a while." Blair said plainly but I knew that he was probing for information.

"My family died when I was little." He answered plainly, as if people had trodden that nerve millions of times already. "And my carers don't really care what I do."

"Alright then. We're going to our uh, headquarters, if you will."

"You mean Class Order Hall?"

"Hah, he's funny!" Blair grinned, turning toward Ailith. "Laugh."

I saw Ailith roll her eyes in the middle-mirror but I also saw her mouth smirk up at one side. She was trying not to laugh just to spite Blair. She was probably also focussing on the road, as we were just entering Dundee and had to make it to the town centre still. We were all worried over the same thing. Somebody had sent that Demon after Ryan and there could easily be more in the City. I started to carve a blocking rune into the door beside me, so that nobody could track the car.

Luckily for us, nothing tried to stop us on the way to the institute. Ailith dropped us off in the carpark then headed away to hide the truck again. Callun walked with Ryan behind Blair and I while we wandered toward the steps of the Cathedral.

"You hide out in this old factory?" Ryan had asked Callun while they followed behind us.

"It's actually a Cathedral. We use runes and wards to hide its true image, an effect we call Glamour. You should be able to see the Cathedral if you concentrate, just imagine you're putting 3D glasses on at the movies. Everything should be clearer." There was silence behind Blair and me as we headed up the steps to the Cathedral. It was only when we got to the large oak door did we hear him gasp with surprise as he managed to see through the illusion.

"Wow, it's… Actually quite nice." He was right of course. The Shadowhunter institutes were always some of the best designed Cathedrals out there. Ours was built from what looked like trap rock, smoothed to give it an ageless and finite look. It held three spires, all towering over the top of the city's buildings, even bigger than the skyscrapers here. There was no cross to be shown since Shadowhunters didn't show any particular religious faith, but there was instead a statue of Raziel perched atop the entry hall, one hand extended and holding the mortal cup, the other clutching the sword of the Nephilim. Stain-glass windows shone with witchlight from the outside, further highlighting its Neo-gothic style.

"Ryan, come here a second." I smiled and beckoned Ryan over and stood him by the door. "I want you to try something."

"I can't pick-locks." He stated as he came up beside me. I gently took his wrist and laid his hand up against the door. "Don't you have a key?"

"There's no lock. Not a physical one, anyway. You need to request entry." I explained and caught Blair raising an eyebrow. He knew what I was doing. "Repeat after me and keep your hand on the door."

"Alright." He kept his hand against the wood as I stepped back and let go of his arm, his eyes resting expectantly on me.

"In the name of the Angel Raziel and the Clave, I request entry to this holy institute."

"Um, right…" Ryan turned his full attention to the door and began the mantra. "In the name of the Angel Raziel and the Clave, I request entry to this institute."

There was a tense pause before the door let out a satisfying click and started to swing open. We all exchanged quick glances of recognition before the four of us stepped inside. I was glad to see that nothing had changed in the short time we'd been away. Rogue Shadowhunter attacks tend to make me nervous like that. The same grand entryway existed as it did when we left, complete still with two staircases curving with the side of the Institute and the long, bright corridor that would take us into the map room.

"Woah, woah. Is that a werewolf?"

"That is what we call, a domesticated dog." Callun patted Ryan on the shoulder as one of our house dogs, Brover, bounded over. He was a Siberian husky, with icy blue eyes and perhaps the fluffiest bundle of joy I'd ever seen. His sister was a bitch in every sense of the word, grumpy mutt.

"Oh. Sure, alright." Ryan let Brover sniff at his hand as he looked around the place. "Do I have to pay for the tour?"

"I'll take you." Callun ran his hand over Brover's head and then turned to face me. "Can you make up the spare room?"

I gave a nod, said goodbye to Ryan and headed upstairs.


End file.
